The other day when a New York City doctor tested positive for Ebola, the governor and the mayor appeared before cameras to promise action. Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “We want to state at the outset that there is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed,” even though one of the few occasions the mayor of New York and the governor hold a joint press conference is when New Yorkers should be alarmed. Alarm is good. Voters unite around politicians who tell you to be alarmed.
 
In a silly attempt to stand up for reason, the Centers for Disease control and various medical authorities say these quarantines may actually hinder the Ebola fight and are not medically necessary, which shows what they know. Governors know best what’s good for their state.
 
Chris Christie isolated a nurse after she got off a plane in Newark and tested negative for Ebola. When the nurse Kaci Hickox was sent home to Maine and broke her quarantine, Gov. Paul LePage got really lucky. A state judge set Hickox free. LePage was able to stand up and say, “As governor, I have done everything I can to protect the health and safety of Mainers.” Who couldn’t vote for that?
 
The governor of Connecticut also signed an order to quarantine anyone who may have been exposed to Ebola. Connecticut has not had a case of Ebola, let alone an Ebola death, and Gov. Dan Malloy is going to make sure they never do. He’s in charge. He’s looking out for the average Joe Nutmeg. This is the same state where a man with a gun massacred 20 school children and six adults. But it’s hard to quarantine people with guns. The National Rifle association gets so testy about it. It’s much easier to quarantine people who don’t have Ebola.
 
Every year guns kill 32,000 Americans, more than six times the number of people who have died of Ebola in the current outbreak. So far we’ve had only two homegrown Ebola infections in the US and just one death of a man who arrived with the disease. The effect of Ebola on America is less than your average two-car accident, but that’s what’s great about this disease. It’s so small it’s easy for a gang of politicians to box it into a corner and stomp on it.
 
In Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindahl forcefully called for a ban on all direct air flights from Ebola-stricken countries to the US, even though there are none. But in the meantime Jindahl’s state quarantine prevented Ebola specialists who’ve been in West Africa from attending a New Orleans medical meeting to discuss how to treat and cure Ebola. If they had come, they would have had to spend 21-days sitting alone in a hotel room. Jindahl, who likes to think of himself as having presidential mettle, is so tough on Ebola, he’ll quarantine even the scientists thinking about Ebola. That’s the kind of action we’ve come to expect from our politicians.